One of the many pleasant surprises we have from blogging is the amount of inspiration and new friends we discover. We started blogging as a way to challenge ourselves to be better gardeners and cooks, but found so much more. As always, we are very grateful to everyone who visits us, but also to everyone who takes the time to share their photos, recipes and cocktails. We learn new things and meet amazing people (from all over the world) almost every day, which is as close to a definition of “happiness” as we can find.
One area where we do fall short (and there are plenty) is responding to the occasional blogger award nominations we receive. We are grateful and apologize for the slow response. The “awards” that are out there an interesting deal, and we know some bloggers like them and some don’t. While it may be a bit “spammy” and a way to drive discovery, it is a great wat to discover new blogs. And some of these blogs really rock. On balance, there are never enough good blogs too read. So here are a few awards:
- Cooking with Corinna, a very good home-cooking blog nominated us for a 7×7 link award. Thanks!
- Taste of Wintergreen, Lindy’s excellent seasonal cooking blog (and we like seasonal cooking blogs), nominated us for a Liebster Award. Thanks!
- And South By Southeast, Betsy’s lovely cooking blog from the Low Country nominated us for a One Lovely Blog Award. Before settling in California, we both had ties to the Low Country, one of our favorite places. Betsy’s blog supplies inspiration and fond memories. We are very grateful.
- Finally, it wasn’t an award but Michael at the Liquid Culture Project, gave us a kind mention on his cocktail blog. Michael is doing some of the best writing in cocktails right now (IMHO) and the mention was a real treat. We made the Hot Toddies from one of Michael’s recent posts and they were one of the better drink’s we’ve had (and we’ve had a few).
So each of these awards has “rules’ on how to respond, but we don’t love rules and hope that we can respond with a few fun facts, a few good sites and some photos. (And good, if somewhat lazy, intentions).
Fun Facts, Quotes and Miscellany:
- We love the SF Giants, but this postseason is killing us. Five elimination games is exhausting. At least they are still in it.
- “From the ashes of disaster come the roses of success”- Chitty-Chitty, Bang, Bang.
- Pretty easy to find those ashes in our garden and kitchen sometimes. Yo, where’s my #$%@ roses?
- We are being lazy about our winter garden. Hard to plant when you still have tomatoes (that is today’s excuse).
- We are starting to improve many recipes by taking ingredients out. This doesn’t always work, but try it, you may be surprised.
Good Sites We Like:
- Spontaneous Tomato
- Gourmet Veggie Mama
- Erin’s DC Kitchen
- Romancing The Bee
- BarFlySF
- Juicy Bites
- The Muddy Kitchen
- Rated R Cocktails
And even though fall is here and the rains have come, the flowers are still blooming. Here are a few to share:
Putney Farm 
Thanks for the shout-out 🙂
Well-deserved!
Awwww! Thanks guys! putneyfarm.com fan forever!
Thanks! Love the pictures. What kind of camera do you have? I think I need to ask Santa for one this year!
Thanks! Mostly a Nikon d5100, but the iphone and an old Canon 35mm get in the mix.
Our favorite piece of equipment is a macro lens… 60mm F/2 Macro…doesn’t work for everything but really makes the close-up images pop…
I’m ashamed to say I have that exact camera…so much learning to do, and once I learn, a macro lens will be my first purchase 🙂 By the way, I come every week for the cocktails and stay for everything else…love this place on the Internet! 🙂
Love, love, love these photos!
Many Thanks!
Congratulation to all the awards, you are worth all of them .. and congratulation to your nominees too. Thanks for the most beautiful post … all those beautiful photos – your camera and you are a fantastic team.
Thanks! Having fun with the camera and still learning, but enjoying ourselves all the way…
Lovely pictures and looking forward to checking out these blogs!
Also wanted to note that I’ve changed the name of my blog. Beyond The Green Door is now Green Door Hospitality. 🙂
Kenley
Thanks and the name change is noted…and our visits will continue…;-)
🙂
You folks well-deserve all the awards and mentions you get. That was a hell of a recognition though, thank you!
Thanks!
BTW- tried a toddy last night with Laird’s Bonded (with a squeeze of lemon). Also very good…prolly a little spice would help, too…
Maybe do a spiced simple syrup and use that as your sweetener?
Yay, thanks for mentioning my site! I’m honored. And congratulations on all of your blog awards, back-logged as they may be… : ) I like your site too and I feel the same way about what a pleasant surprise it’s been to “meet” so many like-minded bloggers, not to mention the amazing exchange of recipe ideas!
New arrival here! *Beautiful* images! Looks like I will be following you, too! …and will also check out your links! Have a wonderful day!
Thanks! And thanks for the visit!